System and method for hand hygiene compliance management and horizontal pump dispenser therefor

Abstract

Systems and methods for hand hygiene compliance management include a hand-held personal liquid dispenser including a pump and pump plunger that dispenses liquid from a reservoir inside the dispenser when depressed. The dispenser includes circuitry that detects and records each depression of the plunger, and a port for connection to an external computer to transfer data such as identifiers for the dispenser and its user, and time and date of dispenser usage. A compliance system includes scheduling, training and education in the use of such dispensers, and data collection to track compliance with desired dispenser usage standards. The system may include receivers, transmitters and transceivers to detect and record hand hygiene opportunities, as in patient-occupied areas in a hospital, and transmit personal dispenser usage and other data to a computer.

Description

REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATION [0001]This application claims the priority of provisional application 60 / 783,315, filed Mar. 16, 2006 entitled HORIZONTAL PUMP PERSONAL DISPENSER by Kirk V. Ogrin, Ronald C. Cagle and Jose Ruiz; the priority of provisional application 60 / 812,422, filed Jun. 10, 2006 entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR HAND HYGIENE COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT by Ronald C. Cagle, Rodney F. Ogrin and Jose Ruiz; and the priority of provisional application 60 / 898,345, filed Jan. 29, 2007 entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR HAND HYGIENE COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT—PART 2 by Kirk Ogrin, Ron Cagle and Jose Ruiz.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates both to a product for dispensing fluids from a personal dispenser that includes a horizontally-disposed or an angularly-disposed pump inside the dispenser and to a system and method to implement and maintain a comprehensive, multidiscipline, multimodal hand hygiene compliance management program...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]Compliance management systems and methods synthesize the key components of an enterprise-wide (e.g., a hospital), comprehensive, multidiscipline, multimodal hygiene program as called for by CDC October 2002 hand hygiene guidelines. Every HCW is tracked through education, training and ongoing spot checks. Training may include computer training, in-service classroom sessions, and hands-on sessions. These systems and methods simplify scheduling and coordination of dispenser usage and education / training.

[0026]A personal sanitizer wireless data transfer allows data collection of hand hygiene compliance and hand hygiene opportunity data with minimal effort from HCWs and their administrators. The capability of detecting an HCW entering a patient care zone provides opportunities to remind the HCW to sanitize, and to collect hand hygiene opportunity data. Combined with the usage data, matching opportunity to compliance provides powerful incentives to compliance.

Problems solved by technology

Hand-held dispensers are in widespread use for delivery of personal care products of many kinds, but none includes a horizontally-disposed or angularly-disposed pump for any purpose.

Furthermore, there are systems that are designed to ensure compliance with hygiene programs, but none that utilize the single-hand use, body worn dispenser.

Images